Video Conference from a meeting room

A physical meeting room usually offers the best possible picture and sound quality for participants. One can easily join the meetings with their mobile devices and computers from all around the world as long as there is at least a decent 3G-level data connection available. Even this is not required in case some participants use voice calls only.

These solutions often utilize very high quality remote controlled cameras and advanced speaker phones which avoid some limitations of ordinary mobile devices and computers in picture and sound. Using several large high-resolution flat screens also allows use and sharing of all kinds of content in completely new quality levels. A good meeting room isn’t automatically expensive to build nowadays, since for example the prices of large flat screens have recently collapsed due to competition in consumer space.

Easy to use -interface

A conference room system is easy to use. You can control it with a remote controller or a tablet. Just select the right virtual room on the screen, and join a meeting. Remote controller and tablet allow control of cameras, microphones, recording, speaker volume, inviting participants, sharing content, etc.

User interface

Remote controller

Touch-screen remote tablet

Meeting room microphones

Good sound makes participating a video conference comfortable, as no one has to strain ears to hear others. The table microphones are high tech devices. These are using audio beaming technology similar used in military radars, that allows suppress background noise and echo. In a large conference room installations several microphones are connected to one another that allows smooth microphone “coverage” all over the table.

Audio beaming microphone

Nowadays quality microphones use audio beaming in order to suppress background noise, and to provide smoother sound. An audio beaming microphone consists of several microphones, from which only those that are nearest to the speaking participant are activated.

Mute -button and light

Besides by a remote controller, the microphones can be muted by a button on top of them. Therefore one doesn’t have to use the remote controller to get a private discussion around the table. The button has a red information led that lights on when microphone is muted, and makes it visible to everyone in the same room.

Microphone array

Large meeting rooms need better microphone “coverage” to have smooth audio for other participants beyond the screen. Using several microphones gives smooth audio, and everyone is closer to the mute button when needed.

Sharing content

A computer screen can be shared by connecting a cable or by using an application. Both alternatives have certain advantages.

Cable share gives better picture update frequency, so you can even share a movie. For example, a video conference can be used for selecting a right advertisement clip. Cable share allows sharing both to computers and mobile devices. Most common video cable connectors are HDMI, VGA and DisplayPort.

Using an application to share a screen allows one to select a specific application to be shared. This improves security, as you will not accidentally show confidential data possibly open in another program.

Conference room’s large screens

Single screen displays content and people at the same time

When using a single screen the content and people will be visible on the same display. You can choose them to be inside similarly sized windows, content in a large and people in a smaller size window, content only or people only.

People only, same size windows

Speaker in a large, others in small windows

People and content, same size windows

Content in a large, people in small windows

Content only

Dual screen system

Dual screen system allows presenting people and content in separate screens, which makes them better to follow. When no content is shared, the people are shown on both screens.

Conference room cameras

Conference room cameras have remotely controllable functions. You can point and zoom cameras to a person, document or a drawing board using a remote controller. Midsize and large room cameras usally have around 10x optical zoom which can bring a person or persons closer when less people are participating than seats are available.

Meeting rooms are usually classified based on their number of seats: 1 – 5, 5 – 10 and 10 – more.